[ Can somebody help me to understand this video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB4nqgrV6uM ]
Hi B_jim,
The video is about sperm motility problems when an enzyme is knocked down, choline dehydrogenase (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choline_dehydrogenase) . This enzyme converts choline in betaine. The knocking down of this enzyme in rats resulted in ATP production problems in sperm cells, so no energy source for the sperm tail. No sperm motility results in infertility, as you may know. In rats, they been able to partly reverse the problem by supplementing betaine directly. They investigate to see if this could apply in some men infertility specific cases ( those who have a specific polymorphism of the human gene coding for choline dehydrogenase that result in sperm that cannot make ATP ). This man then says that it is not known why choline ( and I would say, betaine, which would be more in line with their results ) is needed for ATP production in sperm.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that this has nothing to do with POIS, but everything to do with men fertility problems. As many members has testified, vasectomy as been proven inefficient in treating POIS, so sperm motility, and even the presence or complete absence of sperm in the semen has no influence on POIS.
About betaine, and from a completely different perspective, I can add, as a personal note. Following my interest for Kurtosis posts about methylation support, I have tried TMG ( trimethylglycine), which is betaine ( betaine glycine, to be more precise). In my case, even a small dose of TMG was making me ill, just as l-methylfolate ( and this is not a normal outocme, neither for TMG nor L-MTHF). It is surely not relevant for all POIS sufferer, since Kurtosis got benefits from those supplements, but there can be others having a similar type to mine that can experiment the same bad effects ( fatigue, anxiety, etc...)
